Messing Around With Monarchs

I just got back from a fun filled weekend in Bruce Peninsula where we were trying to capture monarchs with the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy. Unfortunately the Queen narrowly avoided escape but we did manage to catch about 40 monarch butterflies. Our goal was to tag their wings with a small sticker which would help researchers track the monarch migration. The tagged and released butterflies are currently on their southwardly migration towards Mexico. Despite their iconic status, I knew relatively little about these royal butterflies. I’d like to share with you all some of the most interesting features of monarchs.

A tiny super adhesive sticker helps use track the monarch migration

The monarch lifecycle begins with miniscule eggs which are laid by the previous generation exclusively on the underside of milkweed leaves. After 3-6 days, tiny caterpillars emerge and quickly devour their nutrient rich egg casing. Over the next 17 days or so, the caterpillar eats the toxic leaves of milkweed plants and becomes toxic itself. As the caterpillar grows it must shed its exoskeleton which does not grow with it. After shedding five times, the caterpillar is fully grown and is ready for its final molt. The final molt reveals a beautiful chrysalis which will act as a changing room for the caterpillar as it transforms into an adult butterfly. After approximately 8 days, the butterfly begins to emerge from the chrysalis. At first, its wings are diminutive, but as hemolymph (blood) flows into the wings, they expand to their normal size. The monarch is now fully matured and ready to venture forth into the world, taking flight on its brand new wings.

As if the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly wasn’t interesting enough, monarchs also make one of the longest migrations in the animal kingdom. Monarchs spend their winters on vacation in a small area to the west of Mexico City. In early spring, monarchs begin their migration by travelling in a northeasterly direction. As they migrate they feed on the nectar of flowers and lay over 300 eggs per adult on the underside of milkweed plants. Shortly after doing so the adult butterfly dies and the next generation continues the migration. This cycle repeats itself for the rest of the migration with at least three generations of monarchs living and dying during the journey. During late summer or early fall the migratory generation of monarchs at the northern edge of their range emerges and begins their southward migration back to Mexico. But these aren’t ordinary monarchs, this super generation of monarchs has a lifespan that is almost 10 times longer than ordinary monarchs. They forego reproduction so they can put all their energy into making the long journey to Mexico’s more hospitable climate in a single generation.

These monarch butterflies are truly remarkable insects, but unfortunately their numbers are declining. The good news is that we can all help the monarchs. As you may have deduced from the preceding paragraphs, milkweed is an incredibly important plant for monarchs. Growing milkweed in your garden is easy, fun, and best of all it provides monarchs with habitat for laying eggs and food for caterpillars. Another thing you can do to help out monarchs is plant a butterfly garden which will provide the adult monarchs with the nectar they eat. As an aesthetic bonus, you get to enjoy a beautifully coloured garden with monarchs as dinner guests.

Flexin’ My Mussels and Saying Bye to BIO

Flexin’ My Mussels and Saying Bye to BIO

Last month Dan, Danielle and I trekked down to Chatham, Ontario to collect some samples for the freshwater mussel project that I’ve been working on for the last year. We collaborated with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as they were working on monitoring the mussel populations for their projects and were able to help us find and ID the mussels. We arrived on July 27th, and after getting into our waders we got ourselves set up in the river. Luckily for us the DFO crew had collected specimens for us so after going over some quick IDs we started sampling. Like I mentioned in my last blog post, we were testing the use of swabs to collect DNA from the mussels, in order to build the reference library without harming the mussels. After spending the day working in a conveyor belt style system, the three of us had gotten it down to a science and were able to sample a lot of specimens in a short amount of time.

Mussels collected by the DFO team

The next day, we joined the DFO crew earlier and helped them with their surveys. Using viewing boxes we found the mussels and collected them, soaking ourselves in the process. The DFO was collecting mussels to ID and measure them for their databases so once they had finished with them we began sampling for our project.

During our time in the field I was able to pick up some tips from the DFO crew on how to properly handle the mussels in order to reduce stress. We kept the mussels out of direct sunlight in flow through bins submerged in the water. These flow through bins were kept upstream in order to prevent any debris that we kicked up from flowing over the bins. We also had to ensure that any metal tools (such as forceps) were not still hot after flame sterilization. Finally we returned the mussels back into the river in the general area and substrate type that we found them in.

Swabbing the mussels for DNA barcoding

After two days of sampling we completed enough samples to fill 3 plates. Overall we collected samples from 141 individuals over 20 species which is amazing considering that there are 41 species of freshwater mussels found in Ontario!

We’re in the process of getting sequences from these samples, but in the meantime Kara Layton will be giving a presentation about the freshwater mussel project at the International Barcode of Life Conference. The conference is happening this week in Guelph will be a great opportunity to tell other researchers about our work, and get feedback about what we’ve been doing.

The conference comes at a great time because sadly, I am currently finishing up my last week at BIO and it’s a fun way to end my time here. It’s crazy to think that when I started I didn’t know how to ID mussels, or even what DNA barcoding was. I’ve learned so much I am appreciative for the opportunity to be a part of some of the most cutting edge research in the world. I’d like to use my blog to thank everyone at BIO that answered my questions, taught me how to do everything and encouraged me over the last year. All of you helped me grow so much and I will always be grateful.

I love mussels!

Oh, and I’d like to thank all the mussels I sampled for their contribution to science, I really couldn’t have done it without them!